Mixing consoles at present can be divided into two groups:
conventional consoles that are totally manual, in which the user must note manually the adjustments that it is desired to memorize, PA1 consoles with a memory which, thanks to an associated computer, can record and retrieve the different adjustment conditions that the user chooses.
The adjustment members most frequently used on a console are "faders" or cursors which move along a guide path between two end positions, these cursors permitting adjustment of the different levels of the different internal stages of the console.
The mixing consoles with a memory are provided with power driven cursors permitting the user to use by automatic positioning the different cursors in positions previously recorded in a memory of the computer type. In addition to this manner of automatic operation in which the cursors are automatically repositioned to memorized positions, such a console is capable of operating in a so-called manual or free mode in which the user can intervene manually from a mixing memory on the different positions of the different cursors of his console. The problem encountered by the user in the case of operation in the manual mode of the console is to be able to reposition rapidly his cursor to the memorized position without passing through the automatic operation mode. To solve this problem, consoles provided with cursors each provided with an indication of the luminous type, have been developed. The user can thus, by visual control of the position of these cursors, replace said cursors in their reference positions. However, such means require the user to be attentive to these luminous indications in the case in which a manual override of the adjustments is necessary. Such a constraint is adapted to degrade the quality of the work performed by the user.
Correspondingly, there are known adjustment members of the radio-electric signal level, provided with tactical signalization means as described in EP-A-0 677 933. In this case, the adjustment member is actuated by means of a rotatable member provided with an incremental transmitter and an electrically actuable brake, this brake generating a tactile signal on the rotatable member when the control member no longer occupies a predetermined position. As a result, such a device has for its object to manage the manual displacement of the control member to permit the user to modify rapidly his command, but does not permit in any case refining an adjustment that has been automatically made.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,337 describes an actuator comprising tactile means for the position of the actuator, these tactile means being reprogrammable electronically so as easily to modify the tactile signals supplied during a manual actuation of said actuator. Again, there is not in this actuator means to automatically pre-position the actuator.